


Red

by jacyevans



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Little Red Riding Hood Fusion, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-23 02:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23070643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacyevans/pseuds/jacyevans
Summary: You don’t fear me,the wolf says, words brushing through her thoughts like a caress.Not like the others do.“I’m not like the others at all,” Rey says, breathless.-A Red Riding Hood retelling, featuring Rey as Red and Ben as the wolf.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 19
Kudos: 92
Collections: Reylo Theme Event





	Red

**Author's Note:**

> Written for The Reylo Writing Den theme event "Fairytale." This was VERY loosely inspired by the movie "Red Riding Hood" with Amanda Seyfried and my love for any and all Little Red Riding Hood stories.
> 
> CW: biting and knifeplay. See endnotes for details. 
> 
> If you like mood music, you can listen to the songs I had on repeat while writing on Spotify: [Red Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1OTpLLpE2bVDBhIMpFBZXd?si=KPyZfRKBR5OCmZcW1haf5Q)

  
  


Rey has heard whisper of the Wolf King.

Everyone has; people in Jakku whisper stories to each other beneath the shade of night, while parents, grandparents, and elders wield those same stories as a weapon, a warning as to what becomes of disobedient children.

 _Behave,_ they say _. Be good. Or the Wolf King will eat you up._

Every year, the village offers a sacrifice to the Wolf King on the eve of the Wolf Moon, the first full moon of the year. Their best livestock, fattened pigs and goats, the best cuts of meat and ripest fruits. All in the hopes of keeping the werewolf sated.

Sometimes, though, they offer a human.

Once every thirteen years, a Blood Moon rises in the sky - large and bright and as red as blood. Rey was only five the last Blood Moon; she doesn’t remember the boy’s face, nor his name, but she does remember his screams as the Wolf King dragged him away. 

They never found hide nor hair of the body, only his red cloak lying like a streak of blood as bright as the moon in the snow.

—

Rey’s been an outcast all her life.

Her mother died in childbirth; her father, drunk on grief and alcohol, dumped her on the church’s doorsteps and walked off into the woods, never to be heard from again. 

Rey knew she wasn’t like the others from the time she was a child. She could feel life growing beneath the earth, brushing against her fingertips, nudge weak crops to grow that much stronger before the harvest. She hunts rabbits in the woods in the dead of winter, presses her fingers to the ground and feels their heartbeats vibrate against her palms. 

Rey lives on her own at the edge of the town, used her meager savings to buy the tiny shack where she was born. She asks nothing of no one. The other children call her a freak; hiss the word _witch_ between their teeth, and Rey hisses right back, laughing when they scatter, like the terrified rabbits in their burrows.

—

She’s fifteen the first time she meets the Wolf King.

Out under the Wolf Moon, staring up at the stars and making pictures out of the constellations, Rey freezes when a branch cracks in the woods.

She grips the hilt of the knife in its holster on her thigh, holding it loosely in her hand. Her eyes scan the darkness, but even with the moon full and bright, she can’t make out anything past the tiny copse of trees beside her hut.

Two pinpricks of red light appear in the shadows, growing brighter as they grow closer. Rey takes one step back, then another. Her foot slips on a patch of ice, and she hits the ground hard, pain knocking the air from her lungs and the knife from her hand.

She looks up. The shadows shift and bend, coalescing into a wolf, black as a moonless night and covered in fur, as long as she is tall, mouth full of sharp, white teeth.

The wolf snarls, stalking closer. Rey’s breath hitches. She doesn’t move, transfixed by those red, red eyes. 

The wolf throws back his head. A howl cuts through the air, low and sinister, like boulders scraping together. A chill goes down her spine.

The Wolf King bares white teeth in a grin, before he turns and flees for the woods.

—

She makes her own sacrifices to the Wolf King the next year: a pure, white hare, throat cleanly cut, the best fruits from the autumn harvest.

The wolf exits the forest, snow crunching beneath giant paws. He stills when he sees the offerings laid out on her tiny, makeshift altar.

“They’re for you,” she says, when the wolf doesn’t move.

His hind legs twitch. _Why?_ He asks, voice a deep, dark whisper dragging against her mind.

Truth be told, she isn’t sure; she hasn’t stopped thinking about the wolf, counting down the days until she would see him again. The rest of the town looks to the Wolf Moon with dread, but anticipation clawed at Rey’s ribs, scurrying under her skin so she could barely eat or sleep, or do anything but wait.

She tries to put this into words. “It seemed… right.”

The wolf stares, red eyes like fire, burning across her skin. He dips his head, nudging the fruits away in favor of the hare, still blood-warm. 

His teeth dig into the meat at its ribcage, and Rey leaves him to his meal, sinking down to the ground beside her front door. She stares up at the sky, counting stars, idly breaking pieces of dead grass between her fingers.

Footsteps thrum against the snow. Rey lowers her head to find the wolf standing close enough to touch. Blood coats his snout, drops of it painting the snow in red. He licks his teeth.

Her heartbeat quickens, and she balls her hands into fists, resisting the urge to drag her fingers through the fur at the nape of his neck.

 _You don’t fear me_ , the wolf says, words brushing through her thoughts like a caress. _Not like the others do._

“I’m not like the others at all,” she says, breathless.

The wolf cants his head to the side. He stares, his gaze electric, before bounding back towards the woods and out of sight.

—

She doesn’t have any gifts to offer next year. Winter is long and cold and bitter, freezing the crops before the harvest. Even the animals abandon their dens in search of warmer territory; when Rey presses her hands to the ground, she feels nothing but the bite of snow beneath her fingertips.

She’s lying in bed, stomach gnawing with hunger when something thumps against her door, hard enough to knock the horseshoe hanging above the door to the floor.

Shivering, Rey drags a blanket around her shoulders. She pauses to take her knife in hand.

The Wolf King is standing on the other side of the door. Delicately carried in his teeth by the nape of the neck is a hare, the largest she’s ever seen; there’s enough meat on the bones to keep her sated for days.

He lowers the hare to the ground at her feet, and Rey’s eyes fill with tears.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

 _You’re welcome,_ the wolf murmurs. He steps forward, each step careful, and nudges at her chest with his nose. She drags her fingers between his ears; his fur is softer than anything she’s ever touched, his breath warm against her skin.

“What’s your name?” Rey asks, quiet.

There’s a brief moment of hesitation before the wolf answers back. _Ben._

“Ben,” she says, rolling the word around in her mouth. “I’m Rey.”

 _Rey,_ Ben says, and the sound of her name in his voice warms her through. 

The wolf steps back until he’s out of her reach. The cold cuts her skin like ice, and she shudders, dragging the blanket tighter across her shoulders. Still, she watches as he wanders into the woods, until he fades into the shadows.

She falls asleep that night with a full belly and the sound of her wolf howling in the wind.

—

Ben brings her a deer for the next Wolf Moon, dragging the doe in the snow and dropping the carcass at her feet.

She looks at her altar and sighs. “Show off,” she mutters, and his laughter rumbles across her mind, sending a pleasant shudder down her spine.

His gift makes her offering look dismal in comparison, but he eats the hare without hesitation or complaint.

 _Delicious,_ he says, licking the blood from his snout.

She rolls her eyes. “I’m glad you approve,” she says dryly. 

She drapes her blanket across the snow and lies down, tucking her cloak around her legs. This time, the wolf joins her, laying at her side and gnawing on a femur until the bone is licked clean. Rey closes her eyes.

She startles when Ben settles down with half of his weight across her body. She drags her fingers up his snout, to the fur between his ears, down the nape of his neck and between the scapula to his shoulder. A pleased sound rumbles through his chest.

Rey pets down his leg to one of his paws, larger than her own hand. His claws could tear her to shreds in an instant, but he lies perfectly still, eyes closed. Trusting.

“How did you become like this?” Rey whispers, continuing to explore, petting as far down his back as she can reach.

Ben sighs.His ears twitch. _I was a sacrifice._

Rey stills. The boy from when she was young. The one whose body was never found.

He hums, as if he hears the thought and agrees. _The old Wolf King changed me that night. Turned me into a wolf like him. Taught me everything he knew._

Ben arches his back into her hand, and she huffs a laugh, scratching behind his ears. _The sacrifices slaked his bloodlust, but eventually, he wanted more than the village was willing to give. He thought I would make him stronger. Help him kill. I killed him instead._

“And you’ve been alone? Ever since?”

_I’m not alone. I’m with you._

Her heart flutters. Ben’s eyes, always so expressive, convey his amusement before the sound of his laughter ever enters her mind. She curls her fingers under his chin in retaliation, grinning when his eyes slowly squint shut.

“Why didn’t you leave?” Rey asks as his tail thumps against her leg. “Find somewhere else to go.”

_I tried. Something drew me back._

Rey laughs as he flops onto his side, nose pressing into her ribcage. He nips at her fingers as she trails through the soft, downy fur on his neck. “What?”

_You._

Rey’s breath catches, fingers catching in the fur along his ribs. She sits up so fast her head spins.

Ben rolls onto his stomach, lying with his head tall on his shoulders. His eyes blaze through the dark, across her skin and down to her bones. _I don’t understand why. But no matter how far I travel, I always come back. To you._

Dawn crests the horizon, setting the sky on fire. Ben stands on shaking legs and presses his forehead against Rey’s, nuzzling her face. _I’m coming back. I swear it. I’m coming back for you._

He retreats as the first rays of sun fall across the snow; his howl echoes through the forest, a promise he swears to keep.

—

The year passes as they always do - slow and inexorable. Loneliness settles deep into Rey’s heart, and she keeps her distance from the others, only entering town for supplies. She trades a single hare and the best fruits from her harvest for thick, soft wool and fine, red thread. She spends her time preparing, counting down the days with a piece of chalk on her wall, each tick mark bringing her one night closer to her fate:

Thirteen years. The Blood Moon.

The altar at the center of town is replaced by a tall chair made of dark, solid wood. The carved symbols call to the power in Rey’s blood, ancient and primal, but she isn’t their sacrifice. She commits the symbols to memory, planning a ritual of her own.

The evening of the Blood Moon, Rey replaces the tiny altar outside of her home with a rickety, old stool, symbols carved into the seat by her own hands. She unfurls a wool cloak, sewn with care, the material dyed crimson like blood, like the moon in the sky. She drapes the cloak around her shoulders.

The sun sets; the moon rises. Rey settles down, shuts her eyes, and waits.

Something tugs at her chest, deep and insistent. She opens her eyes as Ben prowls out of the forest, eyes like twin flames. He growls as he crosses to where she’s seated, paws leaving sunken footprints in the snow.

Ben stands tall, towering over her head. She touches his chest, instincts jumping to the fore. Rey calls up that same magic that allows her to feel life within the earth, breathing it across his skin. Black fur melts away, turning to skin beneath her palms. 

Rey looks on Ben’s face for the first time, his eyes dark and hot. Wanting.

She drags her fingers through hair as dark and soft as his fur. Ben cups a hand around the back of her neck.

He kisses her under the stars, the full moon high and bright in the sky. She clings to his shoulders, nails digging furrows into his skin.

She pulls back enough to untie her cloak, allowing it to puddle on the seat. She tugs the collar of her shirt down over her shoulder, tilting her neck to the side.

Ben kisses her shoulder with a wet, open mouth. Rey cries out as his teeth break the skin, sharp, wolf canines sure to leave scars. She’ll wear them with pride.

Ben presses his forehead against hers. Her shoulder throbs; her heart sings. 

“Now everyone will know you’re _mine_ **,** ” he says, smirking when she shudders.

Rey reaches beneath her skirt for her knife, flashing the skin at her thigh. She grins as Ben’s eyes grow even darker.

She draws the blade in an arc across his shoulder, cutting deep. She chases the wound with her mouth.

“Now everyone will know you’re mine,” she whispers into his ear.

Ben grins with a mouth full of blood.

—

The Wolf King never comes for their sacrifice that night; in the morning, the townspeople return the chosen girl to her family, bewildered but thankful. The priest calls it a miracle. 

The sun sets; the moon rises. But the Wolf King never returns to Jakku.

As for the witch? They never see hide nor hair of her again.

Across the countryside, people tell new stories beneath the shade of night.

 _Behave_ , they say. _Be good._ _Or the Wolf Queen will eat you up_.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> CW: Ben claims Rey with a bite. Rey claims Ben by cutting his shoulder with a knife.
> 
> Thank you to redbelles for all of her encouragement last night <3 I'm pretty nervous about this fic - it's outside of my usual wheelhouse. I do hope you enjoyed it :)


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